Paxton: Vote by mail threatens democracy

A worker in the state of Washington handles mail-in votes. The novel coronavirus has led to a push for expanded mail-in voting in Texas, but Attorney General Ken Paxton has argued this will open the door to fraud and violates the state’s election law.

Photo: John Froschauer /Associated Press

No law-abiding Texan wants an election system where even a single vote is manipulated by fraudsters.

State and local officials from both sides of the aisle have long agreed that voting by mail-in ballot should be limited to specific, valid circumstances under Texas law. Why? Because those officials — both Republicans and Democrats — believed mass voting by mail led to greater voter fraud.

Just two years ago in a legislative hearing in Austin, a prosecutor from South Texas (and registered Democrat) testified: “Any time you have ballots that are outside the polling location, you’re going to have fraud. ... I would never recommend everyone voting by mail — it invites fraud.”

This was not a partisan issue.

How times have changed.

Not wanting to let the crisis caused by COVID-19 go to waste, Democrats have filed numerous lawsuits attempting to disenfranchise voters. The Texas Democratic Party is demanding that judges rewrite Texas election law and allow all voters to claim a disability to vote by mail, regardless of their health or physical condition. Even worse, Harris County brazenly declared in flat contradiction of the law that anyone can get a mail-in ballot this year and is spending $12 million in tax dollars to make it happen.

As Texas begins safely reopening, election officials have many options available to safely and securely hold elections. They can provide masks, hand sanitizer and gloves. They can enforce physical distancing recommendations, sanitize voting stations, and implement other practical solutions so voting machines can be operated touch-free. To shorten waiting times and lines at polls, they could also expand the number of early voting days as Gov. Greg Abbott appropriately did for the primary elections set for later this summer. With safety precautions like these, voters can access polling places safely and exercise their vote without meddling.

The same can’t be said for mail-in ballots. Under current law, only voters with certain types of existing disabilities, those older than 65 and those who will be physically out of the county during an election can vote by absentee ballot.

In Texas, we require voters to show an ID when they vote to prevent fraud. But there is no effective way for election officials to ensure that mail-in ballots are not requested fraudulently. Just as credit card skimmers can steal your financial information, vote harvesters can easily collect “authentic” signatures under false pretenses and steal your vote.

During the 2018 primary, an anonymous video surfaced that appears to show how easily a Harris County campaign worker collected a ballot application and signature from a voter in less than 20 seconds. After providing her signature, the voter asked the worker, “Is this legal, what you’re doing?” The worker replied, “Yes, ma’am, we’ve done 400 already.”

Once mail ballots go out, harvesters show up at a voter’s door and engage the voter to provide “voting assistance.” Sometimes a harvester will give a voter the impression that he is an election official and hand the voter an official ballot. Sometimes the offer of a free stamp does the trick. Whatever the case, successful vote harvesters leave with a voter’s signature and a ballot that is either blank, “correctly” voted or can be modified (or disposed of, if the voter chose the “wrong” candidate) later. Skilled vote harvesters often appear friendly and helpful. They may engage the voter in reassuring political discourse while assisting the voter in filling out the ballot. Done effectively, the process is largely invisible to voters, who are led to believe their ballot was cast according to their wishes.

Because of tactics like these, my office has conducted over 300 investigations of mail-in ballot fraud. Our investigators have spoken with thousands of victims of mail ballot fraud over the years, and they commonly tell us they were pressured and harassed by campaign workers to sign up to vote by mail, vote a certain way or hand over their ballots. The common denominator in mail ballot fraud is that the voices and votes of the victims are canceled and replaced by those of paid campaign workers. Every fraudulent vote disenfranchises a lawful voter by canceling out their lawful vote.

Some politically motivated groups in Texas want to scare us into allowing what amounts to unlimited vote by mail. In doing so, they are stealing your right to vote. Let’s work together to stop them and keep our elections safe, fair and honest.